A Precious Gift
by SmashQueen
Summary: During a harsh winter at Shabby Meadows, the orphan Angela is given a precious gift from an unexpected stranger. Originally written for a contest.


Ah yes, I do indeed have an old Gaia Online account. Back in June (still contemplating on leaving Gaia since I had grown bored of it) I decided that, for fun, I'd enter a little writing contest in the Pink Bunny Slippers Club of Gaia. I hadn't written in some time, and it was mainly to get some creativity flowing again. The condition was to create a short story of 1,000 words centered around the Pink Bunny Slippers. (I went a little overboard by about 43 words, but any less and the story's quality would have dropped.)

The result?

I won. Nice, eh? So now I thought "Well, I haven't put anything up in awhile, so why not upload it?"

The concept behind this little story is that people either don't want to have a Gaian orphan, or they just turn around and sell them in the Marketplace. If not kept, then orphans end up going back to the orphanage with no one to love them.

This story is in it's original form from when it was submitted to the club. Sorry if anyone seems a bit out of character. Hope you readers enjoy it.

Disclaimer: I do not own any characters here. They're all from Gaia Online.

* * *

Crystal snowflakes danced on the wind, landing with unparalleled grace upon the young orphan's head. Once again the malicious, bone-chilling winter had visited the orphanage, and once again Angela was stuck with the same filthy corner of living space directly under one of many holes in the makeshift roof.

"Merrooow..."

Angela raised her head from her huddled form. She looked over the other forms in the moonlit darkness with her good eye. It couldn't have been Swimp. He and his cats were already fast asleep, curled up together like one big inseparable family. Dogbrain, as...weird as he was, had been in the same position as he had been when everyone began to get ready for bed: tied up in a far corner with a muzzle over his face. It wasn't possible that he had made the sound.

"Merroooow..."

There it was again. Louder than it had been the first time, it sounded as it were coming from...outside. Did one of Swimp's cats get away? No, it couldn't be. Curiosity started to take over Angela and before she knew it, she had moved a wooden board away from the wall revealing a fairly large hole. She peered out into the white abyss of the world, shutting her left eye to shield it from the stinging wind. As it died down a little, she took a closer look.

Nothing.

Whatever it was that had made that noise was most likely long gone. There was no way -

"Meoooow..."

Angela gasped and pushed her head closer, edging out the hole. A small creak was captured by the orphan's ear before she fell forward, landing in snow and what had been the wall; flimsy material that was thinner than plywood. Angela moaned in pain, shutting her eye for a moment and opening it again to see...

Bunnies. Pretty pink bunnies. Wait... No... Angela groaned and pushed herself up, seeing that the 'bunnies' were in fact a pair of fuzzy, pink bunny slippers. They were so cute with their welcoming smiles and floppy ears. It was as if they were calling out to her, to warm her foot. Sure, it would be odd with just one slipper on, but it would probably be so warm... Maybe Scuppers, Ethel, and the others would like to take turns sharing them?

As the girl reached out to grab the inviting slippers, a gray blur dashed in front of her and the fuzzy bunnies were gone.

"Purrrrrr..."

Angela looked off to her side and gazed upon a sight unlike anything she had ever seen before. A gray cat in a sort of brown tuxedo coat with a black shirt underneath it stood before her holding the slippers in its mouth, purring all the while.

"Puh!" the cat said, spitting out the slippers, "Ugh... My tongue shouldn't be this fuzzy." The wide-eyed Angela gasped, pushing herself away from the talking cat and stumbling backwards onto her bottom. The cat meanwhile used the pads on his feet to brush off the excess fuzz on his tongue that the bunny slippers had left behind.

"You...you c-can talk!" Angela said with a shaky tone, pointing a finger at the feline for a moment before holding herself once more. Again the cat spoke, more cheer in his voice this time,

"Bleck. Yeah I can talk, but I'm not as weird as my friend Ian. My name's Rufus. What's yours?" He beamed as he sat there, waiting for a reply. Angela blinked then stuttered,

"A-Angel-"

"Rufus! Where are you?"called out a man's voice as the crystal flakes continued to fall. Rufus turned his head for a moment towards where the person – at least Angela thought it was a person – was calling from.

"Over here, Ian!" the cat answered back to the white void. After a few moments, the sound of snow crunching resonated in the little orphan's ears. A man in a brown tuxedo strode up from the cold and greeted the duo with a smile cracking on his face, something hard to do in the unbearable cold. Although, it was strange... The man had dark eyes with pupils like a cat's.

"There you are," he said, Rufus jumping up into his arms, "Oh...Who's this?"

"She's A-An-gel. I think..." Rufus replied, getting nice and comfy in Ian's arms. Ian's smiled a bit, as if embarrassed.

"I-It's-s A-Angela," the orphaned girl said, shaking more than she had inside the orphanage. Giving a small fish from his pocket to Rufus, Ian turned his attention to the Angela.

"It's nice to meet you Angela. I'm Ian." He picked up the pretty bunny slippers and took a look at them. "I dropped these pink bunny slippers on the way back to the shop." He stooped down and picked up the aforementioned item, "They were left over from this year's Easter event. They must have slid down the hill when I came by earlier." He peered up at Angela. "But the customer never came by for them, so I think they would be better off here with you." The girl gasped.

"D-D-Do you m-mean it?" Ian nodded, kneeling down and stretching out his hand with the pretty pink bunny slippers that made Angela fill with wonder.

"T-Thank you s-so m-much!" she nearly shouted, gingerly taking the precious gift from the stranger with a golden heart. As she did, Ian looked up from the fresh hole in the building to the so-called roof.

"Huh," he muttered, "This is Shabby Meadows orphanage, right?" He peered down at Angela, who had already put on one slipper, but looked up at the mention of the place she and her friends lived in. Ian grinned. "I'm pretty sure we can get you all adopted."

"R-Really?" said the awe-stricken Angela. Ian nodded,

"Sure. Come on. It's not that late. We can still see if they're willing to start the adoptions." Angela looked behind her, the crutch she used lying beside her. With Ian's help, she got to her foot, and with him and the crutch, they walked around to the entrance of the orphanage.

* * *

Heh. Well now, who does Ian know that's rich? Heh heh. I probably won't do anymore Gaia Online fanfics (seeing as how I keep the account for comminicating with some friends and family), but reviews are appreciated.


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